A motion to ban
non-essential cosmetic use of pesticides in urban areas will be introduced
in Ottawa, at Thursday's city health committee meeting. So many people
want to address Thursday's city health committee meeting on pesticides
that councilors are being asked to extend the session into a second
day.

The unusual request
by the city clerk's office comes after the release yesterday of a long-awaited
staff report on private property pesticide use. Anti-pesticide proponents
Ms. Arnold and Councilor Alex Cullen were furious at, what they felt,
were the inadequate recommendations of the report. It called for a $400,000
campaign to encourage residents to voluntarily reduce cosmetic pesticide
use on private property over the next three years.

However, the two
councilors will respond Thursday with their own motion to ban non-essential
cosmetic use of pesticides in urban areas. That motion would include
exceptions for agriculture, forestry and public health where necessary.
The councilors' proposal would create an education program for 2003
and bylaw enforcement by 2004.

Mr. Cullen called
it "a wimpy response to an important public health issue."
Pesticides have been linked in some studies to cancers, Parkinson's
disease, and endocrine disruption, the Bay ward councillor said. "People
won't change behaviors unless there is a bylaw," Mr. Cullen said.

Among the recommendations
of the report are:
¨ establishing a target for reduced pesticide use by the end of
2005;
¨ boosting a city advertising and demonstration campaign;
¨ working with retail staff in garden centres to show alternative
methods of pest control;
¨ working with other governments and building owners in the city
on pesticide use.

Dr. Robert Cushman,
the city's medical officer of health, said the public is not ready for
a pesticide ban but opinion is moving quickly toward such a move. He
predicts a bylaw within three years.